User Profile and Direct Messaging Improvements Beta

[Karna5]

5 minutes ago, Pickysaurus said:

I can see images on other profiles.

*Nods* Overall the Beta method works great (though it would be nice if it defaulted to most recent rather than most viewed). I agree the issue is specific to that user, though I have a suspicion it might apply to people who have hidden images or videos (like that user has).

[Nudebu]

I like the idea of an updated layout, supposing new ways to view a users page will be made available. However, I find one distinct problem to be that I have not been able to change my user profile image ever since this new "beta" has been in play.

 

I just figured out it was due to Brave browser settings. Anyone using brave will need to lower their "Shields" in order to see the complete site with no blockages. Apologies.

[42Crowley]

On 2/28/2024 at 8:29 AM, JustThatKing said:

Many of you have been waiting patiently for the return of features that were removed with the community forum update. We committed to bringing back the “About Me” section and “Direct Messaging”. I’m happy to say that these will be returning soon.

This article will spell out exactly what you can expect with the return of these features. It will also cover our new and improved process for rolling out new features to you, ensuring plenty of opportunity for you to add your feedback so we get things right on release. 

Please read the "Updates" section before posting an issue. We might be already aware and working on a fix!

 

What are we doing?

The changes being made cover 3 different sections:

• Beta releases for new features
• Improved User Profiles
• The return of missing direct messaging features

 

Beta

As some of you may have seen, we have begun a new rollout process which will be used for many of the features being added to the site. We are trying to improve our processes to ensure that we release new features without major problems. This new beta feature will allow you to opt in/out to test the upcoming changes whilst letting you roll back anytime during the beta. 
You can opt in/out of the beta on the user profile page whilst the beta is running. Once the beta ends, all users will be moved over to the new profile page.
Please let us know what you think of our new changes so that we can improve them ready for the full release. 

Profiles 

We are bringing many new improvements to the profile page and moving them into a more modern backend that has better support for our developers. We hope you also find them more intuitive, better looking, and more fitting with the updated site.

This includes:

• The return of the much loved “About Me” section using Markdown text formatting. We have imported your old “About Me” sections and converted them from BBCode to Markdown. This is a part of the move to our more modern editor. This much-requested change has by necessity resulted in the removal of a few formatting options that BBCode provided. We are interested in hearing your thoughts on this. 
• Improvements to the filtering of Adult Content.
• A new tab to showcase Collections you have published. 
• A Total Unique Download counter for verified mod authors that will update daily. This should help you see when you qualify for our Free Premium for Mod Authors program
• Infinite scroll to be consistent with our new backend for the website. This is the same as currently exists on Collections. 

Direct Messaging

• Restoring the much-requested “Message” button to user profiles
• Restoring the unread notifications indicator for new messages you receive. 
• Ensuring that you can message any site user from their profile, without the need for them to have created a forum account directly. Our backend changes to facilitate this means this should no longer be a problem for you. 
• The new forums inbox theme has been updated to more clearly highlight which messages are read or unread. 

Work still being done during the beta

We are still working on improving the User Profile page to make it ready for full release. This includes:

• Populating the “Activity Feed” with information. At the moment you can take a look at the new template and formatting for the feed, but it will not be filled with your activity. If you need to check this, you can still do so by temporarily opting out of the beta. 
• Longer usernames are currently being split across two lines. We feel this bug is small enough that you can still try out the new User Profiles, just be aware that we know of the bug and are working to fix it. 
• The "Report profile" button is still being developed. This will be present for the full release
• The ability for moderated content to no longer appear in Activity Feeds. 
• Hiding the 'About Me' and 'Activity Feed' on banned accounts.
• Complete list of games in the filters for Mods and Media tabs

 

Why are we making these changes?

We are aiming to add new requested features as well as to resolve technical debt. 
All the existing pages are built in a framework that is no longer supported and difficult to work with, so we need to move them into a more modern one with better support for our developers. This is part of the wider work we are undertaking to update the site. We can’t move everything at once as there are a lot of pages on Nexus Mods. For this update, we are moving User Profile pages.

There’s a ton of additional cool stuff we want to do with user profiles in the future. This first update is mostly about technical improvements, with other features to come down the line. 

These changes also restore the functionality that was lost with the forum upgrade. They are much-needed updates to ensure that everyone on the site can easily contact each other in a private setting and receive timely notifications when they have been messaged. 

 

When are we doing it?

The beta is out now! We are keen to hear your feedback and any improvements that you feel need to be made to the new profile pages. Please leave your feedback in the comments so we can take them into consideration. 

 

Updated:

27/03/2024:

• Many improvements to sorting options. This will now filter by "Date Published" by default or whatever you have changed you settings to in Site Preferences. 
• You can now report User Profiles for violating the Terms of Service. 
• The Donate button will now display a modal popup when donating to a user via PayPal, to let you know how the system works.

 

20/03/2024:

• The game filtering dropdown for Mods, Collections and Media has been implemented. The game order in the dropdown is in descending order of number of mods/media per game. 
• Fixed a bug with the 'Media' section that's causing videos not to display.

 

13/03/2024:

The page has been redesigned to show more content, especially on the Mods, Collections and Media tabs. All profile details and "user actions" (track, message, etc) are now at the top of the page. 

Below is some of the feedback we have received and our responses to those concerns. We hope the new user profile design improves these things for you.

• Avatar size being stretched from 100x100 to 180x180, due to this they're super blurry.
  • We've reduced the size to 100x100 for now.
• Specific dates are preferred on mod tiles (e.g. 29/01/2024)
  • We've changed the 'Uploaded' date to be more specific. The 'Last Updated' date still displays as "2 Days Ago" as we think that's easier to read.
• Some mod tiles have lots of empty space between the Mod name and the details. Category, author name, etc is bound to the bottom of the mod card instead of the top, which is how it was done before and is done on most sites. 
  • Mod tile content is now bound to the top of the tile, reducing empty space.
• Usernames on mod tiles are upper case, but they should be case sensitive.
  • We've fixed this.
• Mods are too big now and instead of showing 5 mod tiles per line we're down to 3 tiles per line.
  • Mod tiles are now smaller and we're showing 4 per row. 
• The authors column takes up too much space (which could be used to display more mods, collections or media) and shouldn't scroll down with content.
  • The authors column has been removed and any content it contained is now in the header/top part of the page.
• Longer usernames are being pushed onto two lines.
  • This is no longer a problem with the updated design.
• Page "doesn't scale well" to various "extreme" ends of display resolution. Either too much content is removed for scaling or too much "negative space" left on high res displays.
  • The new page design addresses this and more content is now show on larger displays.

 

Additional changes:

• The page will no longer automatically scroll when changing tabs

 

11/03/2024:

• Mod Tile summaries will no longer incorrectly display HTML from mod page descriptions. 
• '"Last Active" and "Activity" sections will now respect your user settings. These settings can be found here. 
• All staff and moderator roles should now display on User Profiles, ensuring there is no confusion as to who is Nexus Mods staff and who is not. 
• Collections success ratings are no longer cut-off.

 

07/03/2024:

• Profile URLs now use Username rather than userID to help with search engine discoverability. E.g. https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/JustThatKing/about-me instead of https://next.nexusmods.com/users/3194960 
• We improved the page data for search results/social links
• Fixed the problem with iOS/Safari, where mods didn't display properly
• Improved 'Last Active' formatting by replacing "at" with "on" and adding an on-hover timestamp. 

Upcoming Changes:

We have committed to making changes to account for many pieces of feedback that have been put forward in this thread. Here is a taster of what is still to come:

• Mod Tile status indicators (Downloaded, Update Available, etc) will be returning
• Images moved to the Supporter Image share aren't updating correctly in the Media tab. This will be fixed.
• We will be updating the on-hover timestamp tooltips to display date and time, with the same design implementation.
• Improve the display of mod tile images where the image doesn't fit the space well, without stretching smaller images.
• Ensure that deleted/hidden/removed content does not display in the 'Activity Feed'.
• The revamped Activity Feed will be returning. It will/will not be shown based on your existing preferences. 
• UI changes to display more content on the content tabs. We will be reducing the size of the avatar, sidebar and banner as part of this change. 
• Last remaining bits of HTML in "Mod Tile" sections will be automatically removed. 
• Many of the removed sorting options will be returning. In addition to this, the default sort for Mods and Media will be reverted to "Recently Added", however this will respect any changed user preferences you have made. 
• Fixing a bug with the 'Media' section that's causing videos not to display.
• As we have said before, the game dropdown filter will be returning. 
• The report button will be returning, with the ability to report Profiles for rule breaking avatars or "About Me" sections.

Any previously "Upcoming" changes that have been deployed to the beta will be marked as changed.

 

 

an incredible work

[HellKnightX88]

I'm not a fan.

Page is way way way slower to scroll now. If I were to us game terms: old page runs at 60 FPS, new one runs at like 15 FPS. Feels very sluggish.

The part that is above the mod grid takes up more of the screen but displays the same amount of information as far as I can tell. Looks like it's making a worse use of space.

The grid elements are larger so you see less of them on screen and you have to scroll more. Again a worse use of space.

Pagination is gone and instead we get infinite scrolling. This is terrible. It's way more comfortable to select a page number than trying to wrestle with the infinite scroll to go where you want. Try going through MIhailmods' user files using the beta page, see how fun that is.

I hate that they elements are not ordered by release date anymore.

The "You have downloaded this mod" marker is hard to see.

For some reason the author's profile pic is on every grid element despite it already being present at the top of the page.

 

Some of these gripes are obviously due to personal preference but I'm confused how some of this got the OK to be pushed through even if it's for the sake of getting feedback. Is it really not that obvious that the infinite scrolling thing is a big step back?

[mravrgejoe]

Hi, new here. I have this issue with profiles. I have my font scaling really high because I have bad eyes and the ad space has bled into the profile. My resolution is 2560x1080. At least, it looks like ad space.

 

 

[Karna5]

5 hours ago, mravrgejoe said:

I have my font scaling really high because I have bad eyes and the ad space has bled into the profile.

I can't speak to the add space because it sounds like the website isn't scaling the advertisements with the browser (I've run into websites that do that, generally wikis for various games).

But I figured I'd mention some settings I use that works quite well (so long as web pages have scaling).

Windows->Ease of Access->Make Text Bigger: I set this to around the 1/4 bigger mark (it's a slide bar without numbers).

Windows->Ease of Access-> Make Everything Bigger: I set this to 350%

Edge Browser->Zoom: By default I set this to 200%.

However, the Edge Browser lets you adjust the zoom on websites as needed by holding ctrl+MouseWheel.

If you run into a page without scaling, you can temporarily lower the zoom to unblock the items.

Also, I completely gave up trying to see individual letters many years ago. Instead I read by word length and general shape and sentence context.

[JustThatKing]

Updated:

17/04/2024:

• Downloaded and update available states have been redesigned based on feedback. These should now be much clearer across a multitude of different mod tile thumbnail images.
  • There is a bug with how this displays currently. Should be fixed soon
• The "Games" dropdown filter has been reworked. It should be easier to use, show number of mods/collections/media per game and now includes a search field.
• The 'Report' button no longer appears on banned accounts
• We've fixed some data issues with media that either caused profiles to return errors or did not display media correctly
• Author names on media tiles have been updated to display more clearly on smaller screens
• Fixed a bug that caused country flags to not show correctly for some users

Previous Changes:

Spoiler

11/04/2024:

• We have taken the difficult decision to remove Activity Feeds from User Profiles. The feature needs a rework from the ground up, it was causing major performance issues which we did not find acceptable (over 1 minute load times were very possible). These will not be returning in the short term. We may consider reimplementing this feature in the future. 
• Media tiles are redesigned to give more space to the image text, moving the counts and uploader onto their own line
• Images moved to the Supporter Share now update on profiles correctly
• We are looking into an issue where deleted images are still showing in the media tab.

10/04/2024:

• Mod download and update available states are now viewable on mod tiles. (We are looking at making these stand out more on mod tiles)
• Images in Mod tiles and Media have been updated with multiple design changes.
  • Non-standard aspect ratio images will now blur the unused space.
  • The placeholder image for mods with removed images has been updated to better fit the new design. 
• The profile will no longer display empty country information if it is has not been set.
• Content that is blocked in your Content Blocking settings will now display a notice saying that the mod will not appear in searches. This is the same behaviour as the current profile page. 
• Link text in the 'About' section should now remain orange when formatted (e.g. by making it bold).
• Date/Times are now consistent across the profile page and on mod tiles.

 

27/03/2024:

• Many improvements to sorting options. This will now filter by "Date Published" by default or whatever you have changed you settings to in Site Preferences. 
• You can now report User Profiles for violating the Terms of Service. 
• The Donate button will now display a modal popup when donating to a user via PayPal, to let you know how the system works.

 

20/03/2024:

• The game filtering dropdown for Mods, Collections and Media has been implemented. The game order in the dropdown is in descending order of number of mods/media per game. 
• Fixed a bug with the 'Media' section that's causing videos not to display.

 

13/03/2024:

The page has been redesigned to show more content, especially on the Mods, Collections and Media tabs. All profile details and "user actions" (track, message, etc) are now at the top of the page. 

Below is some of the feedback we have received and our responses to those concerns. We hope the new user profile design improves these things for you.

• Avatar size being stretched from 100x100 to 180x180, due to this they're super blurry.
  • We've reduced the size to 100x100 for now.
• Specific dates are preferred on mod tiles (e.g. 29/01/2024)
  • We've changed the 'Uploaded' date to be more specific. The 'Last Updated' date still displays as "2 Days Ago" as we think that's easier to read.
• Some mod tiles have lots of empty space between the Mod name and the details. Category, author name, etc is bound to the bottom of the mod card instead of the top, which is how it was done before and is done on most sites. 
  • Mod tile content is now bound to the top of the tile, reducing empty space.
• Usernames on mod tiles are upper case, but they should be case sensitive.
  • We've fixed this.
• Mods are too big now and instead of showing 5 mod tiles per line we're down to 3 tiles per line.
  • Mod tiles are now smaller and we're showing 4 per row. 
• The authors column takes up too much space (which could be used to display more mods, collections or media) and shouldn't scroll down with content.
  • The authors column has been removed and any content it contained is now in the header/top part of the page.
• Longer usernames are being pushed onto two lines.
  • This is no longer a problem with the updated design.
• Page "doesn't scale well" to various "extreme" ends of display resolution. Either too much content is removed for scaling or too much "negative space" left on high res displays.
  • The new page design addresses this and more content is now show on larger displays.

 

Additional changes:

• The page will no longer automatically scroll when changing tabs

 

11/03/2024:

• Mod Tile summaries will no longer incorrectly display HTML from mod page descriptions. 
• '"Last Active" and "Activity" sections will now respect your user settings. These settings can be found here. 
• All staff and moderator roles should now display on User Profiles, ensuring there is no confusion as to who is Nexus Mods staff and who is not. 
• Collections success ratings are no longer cut-off.

 

07/03/2024:

• Profile URLs now use Username rather than userID to help with search engine discoverability. E.g. https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/JustThatKing/about-me instead of https://next.nexusmods.com/users/3194960 
• We improved the page data for search results/social links
• Fixed the problem with iOS/Safari, where mods didn't display properly
• Improved 'Last Active' formatting by replacing "at" with "on" and adding an on-hover timestamp. 

 

 

[Chadonraz]

34 minutes ago, JustThatKing said:

Downloaded and update available states have been redesigned based on feedback. These should now be much clearer across a multitude of different mod tile thumbnail images

I can't easily find an update available one, but the downloaded one definitely is miles better now. Thanks.

[Guest deleted91251193]

I think the new website design follows exactly how it should look from right now to the future onwards. Nice job

[Cheerybelle]

On 4/16/2024 at 4:10 PM, HellKnightX88 said:

Is it really not that obvious that the infinite scrolling thing is a big step back?

Splitting lists into pages is more contentious than you might think. There are plenty of people who prefer everything to be on one big page rather than having to sift through a bunch of pages, whether for use of Find, easy webpage saving, or just preference from experience.
I think it also depends on what device people are using. I imagine people with devices with less memory and/or a slow internet connection might prefer pages, whereas people without such restrictions may develop a preference for scrolling. Screen size probably has some impact, too.
Does this apply even to the new Nexus profiles? I would say "yes". I personally like the change to scrolling, even for authors with hundreds of mods, and I found the small pages of before rather bothersome (though I did eventually get used to it enough to not think about it).
That's just me, though. That said, this is a debate that has been around the web design space for well-over a decade.